1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a decoration panel used for molded plastic products for vehicles, furniture, cellular phones, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
A known example of a conventional decoration panel is a garnish (decoration panel for automobiles) which is attached to a rear end of a passenger car to be located between rear combination lamps (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) No. H04-78632).
A decoration panel of such a type includes a cover formed of a transparent synthetic resin material such as acrylic, and a mount base member for mounting the cover to the body of an automobile. The cover has a smooth outer surface and an inner surface that faces the mount base member and is embossed. Fish-eye portions each having a concave hemispherical shape are continuously formed on the surface of the mount base member facing the inner surface of the cover, and silver metallic paint is applied to the fish-eye portions to thereby form a metallic coated surface.
In such a decoration panel, light having passed through the cover is complicatedly scattered by means of the embossed inner surface of the cover. When the scattered light reaches the metallic coated surface of the mount base member, by means of the action of concave mirrors (the fish-eye-portions each having a concave hemispherical shape), reflection light is produced, while disturbance in reflection of the incident light is mitigated, whereby a Fresnel lens effect is attained. Thus, a decoration panel which gives a sense of depth can be provided.
Such a conventional decoration panel is composed of an embossed cover, and a mount base member which has concave, hemispherical fish-eye portions formed on a surface facing the cover, with a metallic coated surface formed through applying a silver metallic paint to the fish-eye portions. Therefore, such a conventional decoration panel is suitable for use as garnishes for passenger cars. However, they are not suitable for molded plastic products for furniture or cellular phones, for the following reasons. Since the conventional decoration panel has a structure in which the cover and the mount base member are disposed to face each other with a space therebetween, the decoration panel has a large thickness and the thickness cannot be decreased. In addition, the large number of components of the decoration panel increases cost.
Moreover, the metallic coated surface of the mount base member of the conventional decoration panel is composed of concave mirrors, which collect and reflect the light scattered by the embossed inner surface of the cover to thereby produce spots of light having a diameter corresponding to the size of the concave mirrors. Therefore, spots of reflection light generally of the same brightness. In addition, even when the viewing point is changed in relation to the decoration panel, the brightness of light spots does not change. As a result, the conventional decoration panel has problems of failing to provide variation and not being attractive when used for decoration of an automobile interior part such as an instrument panel or door trim.